Player profile

Souness wanted to add steel to Liverpool's defence and signed Dicks who had made 203 appearances and scored 40 goals for West Ham from 1988-1993 and voted "Hammer of the year" twice by their supporter's club. His left foot was lethal from dead-ball situations. The left-back turned out to be the last player Souness brought to Anfield as manager. Dicks struggled for fitness and his poor attitude and weight problems did not impress new boss Roy Evans. Dicks returned to the Hammers after only one season rather unhappy with his stay at the Reds: "The weight thing was just an excuse. Evans barely talked to me in the time I was there. He just didn't want me. I have nothing to prove to Liverpool or anybody. I still believe in my ability, I just didn't get a chance to prove it at Liverpool. I was trained with the kids and playing with the reserves. Evans bombed me out all together."

Dicks' second spell at West Ham saw him score 25 goals in 123 matches and clinching the "Hammer of the Year" award in 1996 and 1997. West Ham finished tenth in the 1995/96 season, their highest final position for a decade. But the following season they struggled against relegation with Dicks scoring twice in a crucial 4-3 home win over Tottenham that helped saving them from the dreaded drop. Dicks injured his knee in March 1997 and did not play at all in 1997/98 and in only nine Premier League matches in the 1998/99 season, at the end of which he announced his retirement at the relatively young age of thirty after eight operations on his left knee. Dicks tried to come to terms with life outside football as he told Four Four Two. "When I quit West Ham I had enough money in the bank to never work again. Then, in 2001, I got divorced and my wife took it all. We’d set up professional kennels and were looking after other people’s dogs. I had 13 of them at one time and two young girls and there was never any problem. When the wife left she took the dogs too." Dicks tried golf, but had to quit that sport as well because of his dodgy knees. He made a brief return to the game in 2001 when he signed for non-league Canvey Island but only made four appearances for the Essex club. It was a short spell but he tried to make the most of it: "I launched into a few, had a row with the ref, the linesmen and the crowd... I was in too much pain to carry on."

Dicks became a publican in Essex for a while before moving to Spain, but returned to the non-league scene in January 2009 when he was appointed manager of Wivenhoe Town. At the end of 2008/09, Dicks left the club but found another position in September 2009 when he became the manager of Conference club Grays Athletic, who were relegated in his first season. Dicks and Grays parted ways at the end of the 2010/11 season. Dicks, who was part of Liverpool "Legends" team in Thailand in 2012 told LFC.tv he still valued his time at Anfield. "I know it didn't really work out for me at Liverpool but I always look back and think to myself, for a year, I played for one of the greatest clubs in the world. I got to sign for the mighty Liverpool and while I'll always probably be most associated for my time at West Ham, I don't ever regret joining Liverpool. I still scored the last ever Liverpool goal in front of the old standing Kop and that will be in the record books for ever. No one can ever take that away from me." "The Terminator", as Dicks was called, was a tough customer on the field. Even Liverpool's legendary hard-man, Tommy Smith, thought he was too violent: "I would never criticise players for getting stuck in. But this lad seems to think if he gets within a yard of somebody he's got to either stamp on them, kick them or maim them for life." Dicks was sent off no less than nine times in his career!

Related Quotes

"I think that, like Ruddock, he's a very good footballer. Sometimes people forget to write about that. He's just got a reputation for getting himself into trouble which he feels he's gone some way to sorting out."

Souness on the future " legend" Julian Dicks

The player was in the squad the following season

Season

Shirt #

Position

1993-1994

3

Defender

* Note, Since the 1993-94 season players have been allocated a fixed number.